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There are a lot of different PE firms that do a lot of different things, but I usually think they get the blame for systems that were broken long before they g

There are a lot of different PE firms that do a lot of different things, but I usually think they get the blame for systems that were broken long before they got there. They only own a small percentage of the real estate market (like sub 2%) but I see ten articles about them buying homes for every one about the real issues that are leading to the housing crisis, such as NIMBYism, other abusive local regulatory schemes, lack of tradespeople, etc. The people who are fucking up the system want you to worry about the PE firms instead. The way to get it sorted is to fix the market dynamics that have lead to ridiculous housing price increases. They’ll move on to greener pastures when homes in good markets aren’t appreciating at high rates. Vet care is increasing in cost pretty rapidly due to lack of supply, so the answer is more vet schools, perhaps government backed loans for people who want to open clinics, etc. Don’t fight the symptom (you can’t) fight the disease.

shermantanktop 2y ago
[flagged]
- mattmaroon 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - toomuchtodo 2y ago
    Could it be “old HN” was the problem and intelligent people aren’t falling into a trap, but instead see a failing system’s failure points? Intelligent people making informed observations instead of blind nostalgia. Capitalism is broken. It is a tool. Fix the tool. If a bunch of folks connected with YC got wealthy off of a dysfunctional system, it is what it is, congrats on your lottery ticket. 90% of startups fail, 50% of YC startups are alive after five years, only a small minority achieving unicorn status; most fail, that doesn’t mean founders and commoner employees suck, it means they’re unlucky. Certain folks connected to YC have done well regardless of their startup failures. So just be interesting to people who will give you opportunities based on whatever their criteria and belief systems are.
    - mattmaroon 2y ago
      It was never not broken. Only less broken than everything else. Nobody thinks it couldn’t be improved. That’s not what I’m talking about. There is a lot of anti-capitalist propaganda on the far left. You can spot the buzzwords. They believe that anybody who makes any large amount of money in anyway, must have done something evil. Which, fine, but this used to be a site about how to raise venture capital. I’ve been here since near the beginning so it seems weird.
      - toomuchtodo 2y ago
        If you can raise venture capital in a manner that allows you to create a profitable business that doesn’t cause harm (and those investors aren’t waiting to boot you or liquidate you if your trajectory sags), I believe HN is still serving its purpose, even if forum participants are aware of undesirable behavior of non venture finance. I also believe one can be pro HN/YC (I am, with some griping along the way) and anti-brutalist capitalism, because HN and YC in general is about enabling smart, scrappy people to build and grow something tangible with YC taking their cut for contributing towards enabling their success. TLDR The goal is building value and being rewarded for that value creation. I don’t think that’s at odds with moderated capitalism. You’re not wrong, you’ve just had a different window of time in which your perspective was formed (imho). (Thoughts and opinions my own, just an internet rando)
  - ToucanLoucan 2y ago
    Even the most aggressive proponents of capitalism concede that it is indeed, basically evil. I'm not an anti-capitalist, I like the notion of cheap electronics and having a variety of cars to buy from, and 60 kinds of peanut butter. Where capitalism and I start to butt heads is things like predatory financial practices, anti-consumer lobbying, the monetization of essential services for life, and openly stoking the worst in people for profit.
    - mattmaroon 2y ago
      That’s an unsupportable claim, Please show me all the aggressive proponents of capitalism who concede it as evil. It also makes no sense, People are evil, ideas are right or wrong. That’s the exact nonsense propaganda I’m talking about.
  - bcrosby95 2y ago
    Capitalism is good when it can be balanced with the needs of society. We do not have that. We have people saying their only requirement is to make more money. What do you call someone who pursues profit at all costs, only restrained - and sometimes not - by the regulation of government? Evil, duh. If you approach capitalism like this you're evil.
    - mattmaroon 2y ago
      We do have that, a lot. It’s just not perfect. Capitalism has been the best thing that’s ever happened to humanity, and you’re just regurgitating the propaganda from people not capable of nuanced thought. Capitalism is not the answer to every problem, and nobody in economics believes laissez faire is a good idea. People pursuing profits is what has lifted is all out of poverty. “At all costs” doesn’t mean anything, it’s just a propaganda buzzword. Believe it or not, PE firms do a lot of good things too. VC is a form of PE without which we wouldn’t be having this conversation. A lot of poorly run businesses were purchased and well run and became going concerns. And certainly it goes the other way sometimes, but that’s not necessarily bad. Is the World materially worse off without Kmart and Sears? Hard to say. In any case, when you hear someone call capitalism evil, that’s the propaganda trap I’m talking about. It’s a tool. It’s no more evil than a hammer.
      - coliveira 2y ago
        > People pursuing profits is what has lifted is all out of poverty. No, it's not. People were living in abject poverty during capitalism heyday. It was only when society decided that enough was enough and capitalists had to pay taxes to fund pensions, schools, sick time, vacations, etc., that people started to have a decent life.
        mattmaroon 2y ago
        We are currently living in capitalisms heyday. Fewer people are living in abject poverty than ever.
        2y ago
  - fastball 2y ago
    HN isn't really "about" anything as specific as that, but if it was about something I think many more people would say HN is about the hacker spirit, not about being a good capitalist. And the hacker spirit was never about allowing rent-seeking corpos do whatever they want.
  - shermantanktop 2y ago
    FWIW I said nothing about capitalism. Everything I said was about the conduct of individuals who operate in a universe where their actions affect others. Socialism and any other “ism” (to quote Ferris Bueller) also generates amoral actors who seek to cover their acts by aligning with a prevailing ideology. For our system, private equity is a shining example, but you can see it in action down at the used car lot too.

shermantanktop 2y ago

[flagged]

mattmaroon 2y ago
[flagged]
- toomuchtodo 2y ago
  Could it be “old HN” was the problem and intelligent people aren’t falling into a trap, but instead see a failing system’s failure points? Intelligent people making informed observations instead of blind nostalgia. Capitalism is broken. It is a tool. Fix the tool. If a bunch of folks connected with YC got wealthy off of a dysfunctional system, it is what it is, congrats on your lottery ticket. 90% of startups fail, 50% of YC startups are alive after five years, only a small minority achieving unicorn status; most fail, that doesn’t mean founders and commoner employees suck, it means they’re unlucky. Certain folks connected to YC have done well regardless of their startup failures. So just be interesting to people who will give you opportunities based on whatever their criteria and belief systems are.
  - mattmaroon 2y ago
    It was never not broken. Only less broken than everything else. Nobody thinks it couldn’t be improved. That’s not what I’m talking about. There is a lot of anti-capitalist propaganda on the far left. You can spot the buzzwords. They believe that anybody who makes any large amount of money in anyway, must have done something evil. Which, fine, but this used to be a site about how to raise venture capital. I’ve been here since near the beginning so it seems weird.
    - toomuchtodo 2y ago
      If you can raise venture capital in a manner that allows you to create a profitable business that doesn’t cause harm (and those investors aren’t waiting to boot you or liquidate you if your trajectory sags), I believe HN is still serving its purpose, even if forum participants are aware of undesirable behavior of non venture finance. I also believe one can be pro HN/YC (I am, with some griping along the way) and anti-brutalist capitalism, because HN and YC in general is about enabling smart, scrappy people to build and grow something tangible with YC taking their cut for contributing towards enabling their success. TLDR The goal is building value and being rewarded for that value creation. I don’t think that’s at odds with moderated capitalism. You’re not wrong, you’ve just had a different window of time in which your perspective was formed (imho). (Thoughts and opinions my own, just an internet rando)
- ToucanLoucan 2y ago
  Even the most aggressive proponents of capitalism concede that it is indeed, basically evil. I'm not an anti-capitalist, I like the notion of cheap electronics and having a variety of cars to buy from, and 60 kinds of peanut butter. Where capitalism and I start to butt heads is things like predatory financial practices, anti-consumer lobbying, the monetization of essential services for life, and openly stoking the worst in people for profit.
  - mattmaroon 2y ago
    That’s an unsupportable claim, Please show me all the aggressive proponents of capitalism who concede it as evil. It also makes no sense, People are evil, ideas are right or wrong. That’s the exact nonsense propaganda I’m talking about.
- bcrosby95 2y ago
  Capitalism is good when it can be balanced with the needs of society. We do not have that. We have people saying their only requirement is to make more money. What do you call someone who pursues profit at all costs, only restrained - and sometimes not - by the regulation of government? Evil, duh. If you approach capitalism like this you're evil.
  - mattmaroon 2y ago
    We do have that, a lot. It’s just not perfect. Capitalism has been the best thing that’s ever happened to humanity, and you’re just regurgitating the propaganda from people not capable of nuanced thought. Capitalism is not the answer to every problem, and nobody in economics believes laissez faire is a good idea. People pursuing profits is what has lifted is all out of poverty. “At all costs” doesn’t mean anything, it’s just a propaganda buzzword. Believe it or not, PE firms do a lot of good things too. VC is a form of PE without which we wouldn’t be having this conversation. A lot of poorly run businesses were purchased and well run and became going concerns. And certainly it goes the other way sometimes, but that’s not necessarily bad. Is the World materially worse off without Kmart and Sears? Hard to say. In any case, when you hear someone call capitalism evil, that’s the propaganda trap I’m talking about. It’s a tool. It’s no more evil than a hammer.
    - coliveira 2y ago
      > People pursuing profits is what has lifted is all out of poverty. No, it's not. People were living in abject poverty during capitalism heyday. It was only when society decided that enough was enough and capitalists had to pay taxes to fund pensions, schools, sick time, vacations, etc., that people started to have a decent life.
      - mattmaroon 2y ago
        We are currently living in capitalisms heyday. Fewer people are living in abject poverty than ever.
        2y ago
- fastball 2y ago
  HN isn't really "about" anything as specific as that, but if it was about something I think many more people would say HN is about the hacker spirit, not about being a good capitalist. And the hacker spirit was never about allowing rent-seeking corpos do whatever they want.
- shermantanktop 2y ago
  FWIW I said nothing about capitalism. Everything I said was about the conduct of individuals who operate in a universe where their actions affect others. Socialism and any other “ism” (to quote Ferris Bueller) also generates amoral actors who seek to cover their acts by aligning with a prevailing ideology. For our system, private equity is a shining example, but you can see it in action down at the used car lot too.